THE chief of the Clan MacLeod has sent a letter to 50 staff warning them of dire consequences in the event of an independent Scotland.
His letter to workers on the Dunvegan estate on the Isle of Skye prompted fierce criticism from the local MSP who has called the letter "intimidation".
Hugh MacLeod divides his time between the estate on Skye and his career in London as a documentary film maker.
His father, the late John MacLeod of MacLeod infamously sought to sell the Black Cuillin mountains to raise £10 million to refurbish the crumbling family seat, Dunvegan Castle.
In his two-page letter Mr MacLeod says he has a duty to share his thoughts, which include his view as a modern history graduate that nationalism is "inherently divisive, intolerant, xenophobic, vitriolic and destructive".
He condemns the "great deception of the SNP" in selling a "separatist dream" of "a vision of a land of milk and honey funded by unlimited oil". Had Scotland been independent in 2008 the banking collapse would have made "Ireland, Iceland and Greece's economic crises look like an episode of Balamory", says the letter.
His investment in Dunvegan would not have been possible if Scotland had been independent, he claims, and he likens the potential short-term future after a "vote of no return" to the ruinous Darien scheme, which attempted to establish an independent trading nation called Caledonia before the Act of Union in 1707.
He concludes: "In the event of Yes vote, I just hope that history will not repeat itself although it does have a habit of doing just that."
Dave Thompson, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said: "Everybody is entitled to their own opinion in relation to the independence referendum, but I don't believe any employer should be exerting any pressure on employees under any circumstance. It seems to me that this letter is verging on intimidation because the implication is that the estate workers' jobs would be at risk in an independent Scotland."
Mr MacLeod said: "To be attacked for expressing a personal opinion is both disappointing and offensive. I have been asked repeatedly for my views on the referendum and made abundantly clear in my letter that how people vote is entirely a matter for them."
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